Aulis Kähkönen – The Journey of an Olympic Swimmer in Times of Depression

Pe­op­le in­te­res­ted sports ge­ne­ral­ly ad- van­ce in their ca­reers ac­cor­ding to their own pre­fe­ren­ces and backg­rounds. Au­lis Käh­kö­nen’s (1930–2016) jour­ney to be- co­ming an Olym­pic ath­le­te be­gan as a phy­si­cal­ly ac­ti­ve child in Vy­borg. In addi- tion to being phy­si­cal­ly ac­ti­ve in his free time, he was also con­nec­ted to sports as­so­ci­a­ti­ons. Du­ring the ye­ars af­ter the Se­cond World War and af­ter ex­pe­ri­men- ting with many dif­fe­rent sports, Käh­kö- nen, who was on the cusp of ado­les­cen­ce, set his fo­cus on swim­ming. The wor­king

It has been a tra­di­ti­on throug­hout his­to- ry that pe­op­le have main­ly ta­ken a po­si­ti- ve at­ti­tu­de to­ward sports. The ad­jec­ti­ves that have been as­so­ci­a­ted with the sports are usu­al­ly po­si­ti­ve: it is good for he­alth, it is fair and li­ve­ly. The sports have also a way to edu­ca­te the child­ren and youth so that they will be res­pec­tab­le, res­pect- ful and cons­cien­ti­ous ci­ti­zens who can ser­ve the fat­her­land. Ho­we­ver, the world of the sports is hard­ly per­fect. The­re are also dar­ker di­men­si­ons to it.

Sports have uni­ted na­ti­ons throug- hout his­to­ry but, by the same to­ken, it has also cre­a­ted conf­licts and di­sag­ree- ments bet­ween na­ti­ons. Be­cau­se of its over­ly pat­ri­o­tic fo­cus – real or sup­po­sed – sports has play­ed its own part when it co­mes to the stir­ring up the arms race and the conf­ron­ta­ti­on bet­ween na­ti­ons. The sports have been con­ver­ted into a po­li­ti­cal tool whi­le its fun­da­men­tal pur­po­se, which is to be res­pec­tab­le and com­man­ding, has been lost.

The sports have been po­li­ti­ci­zed. This in­di­ca­tes, among ot­her things, that class swim­mer quick­ly be­ca­me suc­cess- ful both na­ti­o­nal­ly and in­ter­na­ti­o­nal­ly. Käh­kö­nen’s ca­reer was sha­do­wed not only by the Gre­at Dep­res­si­on, but also by Fin­land’s cent­ral sports or­ga­ni­za­ti­ons being in­vol­ved in a conf­lict af­fec­ting their eve­ry­day ope­ra­ti­ons. Chan­ges in Käh­kö­nen’s li­ving con­di­ti­ons were fre- qu­ent in his child­hood and ha­ving to le­a­ve Vy­borg be­cau­se of the war and en- ding up first in Juva, and then in Hel­sin- ki, then in Tur­ku and fi­nal­ly in Hel­sin­ki again re­qui­red a gre­at ca­pa­ci­ty to adapt. As a child of a ge­ne­ra­ti­on who­se pa­rents had been to war Käh­kö­nen grew up set- ting asi­de his own needs be­fo­re tho­se of his fa­mi­ly’s. For Käh­kö­nen, gro­wing up du­ring war time was a re­sour­ce that hel- ped him put his ad­ver­si­ties in the sports world into pers­pec­ti­ve.